In the cruel House of Phoenix, Elowen lives as the unwanted one—a magicless outcast branded the family's disgrace. Her sister is cherished in splendor, while Elowen survives by enduring suffering and hardening herself in blood and iron. But when greed destroys what little she has left, she throws herself into a pit meant for death and finds something impossible waiting below: a god. Now transformed with wings of crystalline fire, the once-discarded girl returns to claim the blood debt her family can never escape.